Fanie Eloff

Who is Fanie Eloff?

Fanie Eloff, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Eloff was born as the sixth child and second son of Frederik Christoffel Eloff and Elsie Francina Eloff. They lived right next to his grandfather, President Paul Kruger of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek on church street in Pretoria.

Eloff along with other influential South African Artists like Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef, Gerard Moerdijk and Gordon Leith attended the Staats Model School in Pretoria until the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War. The Eloff family followed Paul Kruger into exile in Switzerland after the fall of Pretoria on 3 September 1900. After the death of Kruger in 1904 the Eloff's moved back to Pretoria and Fanie Eloff completed his schooling. He enrolled at the South African School of Mines in Johannesburg for a course in geology.

In 1908, Fanie decided to further his studies in Europe, at the Serbonne University in Paris. After a short time in Paris he was so inspired by the sculpture of the city that he decided to follow this as a career. He firstly enrolled for an Anatomy course at the Jardin Des Plantes and Eloff received his first sculpture classes at the art school of Peter David Edstrom, in Paris.